We have a beautiful picture of a mountain lion that was treed in the area on our front page this week (Jan. 22 issue of the Tomahawk Leader). Wondering how many of you have seen a cougar in the days that were not being acknowledged? Give us a year/season/location and a bit of a description.

I do not live there anymore, but I have to admire the fact he or she looks healthy and I pray to God someone doesn't shoot him because he ate someone's goat or chicken. This is truly a wonderful cat who really needs to be admired, appreciated and protected. Finally the Leader has a "living" animal on the front page other than someone's kill. Thank you!

Back in the late 80's, (I don't remember the exact year) my wife saw one cross our back yard about 200 ft. from the house. We live west of town on the south side of the Spirit. I wasn't home at the time and was skeptical until about two days later when I got home from fishing and while I was putting the boat away I heard it scream out in the woods behind our house. Felt like I was in a jungle movie. This was in late May. The next day I was in town and stopped at the dnr and talked to a couple of the people there. They just brushed it off and said we were seeing thing as there were none in Wis. Typical for the dnr when they don't want to admit they might be wrong. Over the next few days I heard it again and saw tracks in the sand on the Spirit. The water was down and it was walking the shore line. We talked to our neighbors and one of them had also seen it.

A year or two later, we and a couple of our neighbors heard it and all were standing out in the yard listening to it. That is when we discovered that there were two of them calling back and forth to each other. We were not sure of what we were hearing until one of the neighbors brought a program up on the computer that had animal sounds on it and it was a perfect match. The sound was a mating call. So much for it being a lonesome male looking for a mate. He already had found her.

Another of our neighbors children also saw the cat and came running in the house and told their dad who went out and saw it before it went into the woods.

They have been around a lot longer than the dnr will admit.

The National Institutes of Health has just released the results of a $200 million research study completed under a grant to Johns Hopkins.The new study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it.

A reputable person I know from Tomahawk told me a friend of his caught photos of a mother and her offspring on trail camera in the New Wood a couple years ago, which isn't far from where Old Scout is talking about. I haven't seen any myself, but it seems just about everyone who has lived in the Northwoods for a while has seen a big cat at least once.

It wasn't to long ago that the "experts" from the DNR laughed off large cat sightings in our area. For several years people spotted one in the area East and North of Ingman's Service but that was put in the same file as UFO sightings. The trail-cams have made a difference in the "experts" opinions.

they are pretty, but don't be fooled, they eat people all the time in CA. What you are looking at is a WILD animal and try to remember that. They have killed a great many people and there is a reason why you don't find many in WI. The original settlers called them "panthers", that's what Laura Ingalls referred to them as, and the white settlers and according to Laura Ingalls, the American Indians, killed them whenever they found them because they DO kill and eat humans when they have the opportunity and so do wolf packs. I have traveled all over the West and you really have to respect the wild animals and not think of them as you do your dog or cat. In fact, some peoples' dogs have been a problem. Out west, something was killing people's sheep and young cattle and other animals and they found out it was someone's standard size poodle, yes you heard that, that was doing the killing. Even domestic pets can do bad things. Don't go out in the woods at night around Tomahawk. There are cougars in WI again and I have been told by a relative there that there are wolves, too. Don't tempt them or your view of them will change...in fact, it would seem, according to what I have heard, that you would rather see a black bear than wolves or a cougar, just don't camp out in the woods and be stupid enough to have food, drinks, perfumes, or anything that smells good to a wild animal in your tent (you will get mice or other rodents if you don't get coyotes or a bear or two), and watch out for wolves, coyotes and cougars...a coyote ate someone's pet poochie in Madison and all of the sudden the liberals were screaming for the deaths of the "savage" creatures whereas a few weeks before they were all agaga that they could see wild animals in Madison. Funny how fast the liberals will change when something they previously loved gets to them directly!

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out"-Macaulay

SPeaking of being out west, one of the biggest things you hear every year is how some stupid tourist got gored by a buffalo or male elk while trying to photograph it. That's the dumbest thing you can do. Buffalo don't tolerate a light flash and are easily spooked and will rush you if you do something like that. The rangers are constantly warning idiots to keep a healthy distance from them. The next things is they are warning people "take LOTS of water into the Grand Canyon!" Some dummy dies every year in the Grand Canyon or Death Valley or gets knocked out in some cave somewhere because they didn't listen to the rangers.

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out"-Macaulay